that elvis was to me. ♪ let's don't let a good thing die ♪ anka: he was an important force. there's nobody like him. and he wound up in vegas at a time when they needed him, and, sadly, it ended with vegas. ♪ you know i'd never lie to you ♪ ♪ mmmmmm-mmm ♪ ♪ zook: elvis' death was a huge blow. he would fill the town, and now that was gone. we need to find somebody to replace elvis. woman: casinos can't afford star salaries. they've simply priced themselves out of the market. las vegas really needed an attraction. the city that thrives on replacing itself all the time. zoglin: this was the beginning of vegas as a disneyfied entertainment zone. ♪

man: 4, 3, 2, 1, fire. it's just evolution. it's just changing. everything has a shelf life. nothing stays the same. man: we continue to be one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, and there's no reason that shouldn't continue. this city has this whole other trajectory and life unto itself. las vegas has this mystique. man: the vegas strip has seen everything from sammy and frank to siegfried & roy. las vegas is the most thoroughly modern 21st century city that we have. announcer: this is beyond fairytale, it's inconceivable. las vegas evolved. it's unlike anywhere else in the world. [ cheers and applause ] ♪

♪ ♪ luck be a lady tonight ♪ ♪ luck be a lady tonight ♪ ♪ tonight ♪ ♪ luck if you've ever been a lady to begin with ♪ ♪ luck be a lady tonight ♪ ♪ luck be a lady ♪ ♪ tonight ♪ ♪ ♪ gill: elvis's death really impacted vegas,

and then after that, there wasn't anybody to replace him. and that's when everything changed. charles: he was one of a kind, man. he brought his own persona. there'd be some that'd try to be like him and -- or influenced by what he did, but there'd never be another guy like him. zook: elvis's death was still a huge blow because even though entertainment in las vegas was on a decline, he would fill the international, he would fill the town, and now that was gone. [ cheers and applause ] god knows i ain't no elvis. there never will be another one, but i just thought this might be fun, and he might be watching us, he might get a kick out of it. ♪ uh, well, a-bless my soul, what's wrong with me? ♪ ♪ i'm itchin' like a man on a fuzzy tree ♪ ♪ my friends say i'm actin' wild as a bug ♪ ♪ i'm in love, i'm all shook up ♪

schumacher: las vegas mourned elvis not only because he was this iconic figure that everybody loved, but also he brought a lot of money to the city. so we needed to find somebody to replace elvis. cher: ♪ the warden threw a party at the county jail ♪ ♪ the prison band was there and they began to wail ♪ ♪ the band was jumpin' and the joint began to swing ♪ ♪ you should've heard those knocked out jailbirds sing ♪ anka: when you take talents like cher or dolly, you tell the people you can sit there two or three weeks because they all come in from wherever. so you're getting people you normally wouldn't get. that's the uniqueness of vegas. barbutti: after elvis, they found out that other people could draw a crowd. you put a singer in for a month, and the entertainment was why people came in the door. you're opening at the riviera hotel in one of the largest deals ever signed in las vegas. it's the first time i've ever been in vegas.

so i'm curious to see if i'm going to really enjoy it. the salaries were actually ridiculous. i remember dolly parton was playing. they paid her over $300,000 a week. everybody was astounded. sometimes, these salaries were so huge, you wonder how they were going to make their money, and they just couldn't continue to do it. las vegas once labeled itself recession proof. newscaster: if a want ad won't get you a job, will a star get you an audience? it always has in las vegas, a town that always has considered itself recession-proof. always apparently stops now. now that neon oasis is suffering what one casino operator calls the first real slump this town has ever had. anka: in the time i performed in the early days, it was just single performers at every hotel. and then they decided to put in the big production shows because they didn't cost quite as much money.

newscaster: when the lights go on on las vegas marquees, it's not the big names that are packing them in. it's siegfried and roy. casinos can't afford star salaries. they've simply priced themselves out of the market. zoglin: siegfried & roy originally were a featured act in the folies bergere shows and they were bringing a new type of attraction to las vegas, full of extravagant showmanship and real, uh, you know, dazzling illusions. and they were so good and so popular that they got their own show, and that show for several years was the biggest vegas attraction. they were the first magic act with large animals. they could make a giant cat disappear. that's not something you see very often. geran: it was just amazing to see a beautiful tiger that close up.

not on tv, not in a cage, but really close up. that kind of threw me, because i'm like, "it's not gonna come in the audience, is it?" where else would you go to see something like that? there's literally no where in the world that you were going to see that kind of an act. there's not even any decent imitators of that. siegfried & roy came to this country from germany in the early '70s. they've been together now for more than 23 years. and to give you some idea of their endurance, this summer, their las vegas show had its one millionth visitor. fischbacher: las vegas has been built on imagination. and it seems in las vegas, imagination has no borders. the sky's the limit. newscaster: the flashy reviews, which may cost $5 million to produce, but can draw a crowd for months.

siegfried & roy were not only able to stage a show with the highest ticket price, but they were able to sell out, for year after year, which opens a lot of eyes. sardelli: siegfried & roy, a great act, great act. a lot of innovation, tigers, lions, crocodiles, cockroaches, they have everything. [ laughs ] [ applause ]

gambling has changed over the years, especially with the entrance of wall street into the game. the industry says it's gone legit. and no one says it louder than steve wynn. i think the modern era for las vegas began in 1989, when steve wynn opened the mirage hotel. schumacher: this definitely was a time when las vegas was starting to think beyond the mob. and when steve wynn spent $600 million to build the mirage, it ushered in a completely new era in which the mob could no longer afford to be involved. wynn understood that las vegas didn't need another casino, but it really needed an attraction. wynn: what is it, that's new or better? and i said, if we could create tremendous tension between what your mind said you should see and what you actually saw, you would create a marvelous, compelling attraction.

newscaster: he is risking half a billion dollars to build the world's largest hotel casino on 86 acres of nevada desert. wynn calls walt disney his hero, and this will be his version of an adult disneyland. steve wynn is buying up casinos, land, landowners to build the mirage. and it opens in november of 1989, and the story was that he had to show a profit of a million dollars a day for a year to be able to pay it off, and he paid it off in about six months. you want to make money in a casino? own one. schwartz: what the mirage did was add a lot of non-gaming to the gaming mix. the idea was this is not a casino with a hotel attached. this is a luxury hotel with a casino attached. so it really does shift the model for what a casino can be. schumacher: steve wynn said, "we are going to create a mini city.

this is going to be a place where you could spend your entire vacation at the mirage and never be bored. never feel some need to go somewhere else." and so, the mirage really set las vegas on a new course. the mirage had everything. it had a rainforest. they had aquariums with big fish in the lobby. an erupting volcano. binkley: they had dolphin shows. you could not find that anywhere in the world. i challenge anybody to say in the '80s that you would ever be able to find something like the mirage. steve wynn said it's what god would have done if he had the money. anka: are you ready? sure, you can clap! ♪ oh, please stay by me ♪

whenever i performed there, it was amazing. the mirage was an incredible structure, never seen before in las vegas. all of the content, when you think of that opening day, when he's there and in walks siegfried & roy and a tiger. it was an experience that town had never, ever seen before. siegfried & roy was around here for years. but steve made it more special. he spent 30-some-odd million building them a state of the art stage. weatherford: steve wynn took the roots of what worked with the siegfried & roy show and blew it up. and suddenly you had siegfried & roy fighting giant mechanical dragons onstage. and it all worked amazingly. schumacher: this was no longer some sleight of hand.

this was now these giant illusions that were created. and it's not something you could easily put on the road. and you really could only pull that off in las vegas. green: at the time the mirage opened, i said, "yeah, it's never gonna work." nobody's gonna pay $125 to see siegfried & roy. nobody's gonna come look at a volcano. this is a disaster." that's why i'm in history. schwartz: what steve wynn did with the mirage was take jay sarno's theme idea and take kirk kerkorian big hotel idea and merge them, and that really does create the modern mega-resort. ♪ ooh ♪ ♪ las vegas ♪ and if you're designing casinos, you're thinking, "what big new demographic can i cater to that hasn't come here yet because i have all these rooms that i have to fill?" schumacher: so how do you do that? you have to bring the whole family.

what steve wynn went for, everybody went for. zoglin: this was the beginning of vegas as a kind of disney-fied family entertainment zone. mcbride: suddenly you have all of these casinos that used to be only for adults have arcades and games and shows for children. zoglin: very quickly, you saw the hotels springing up. treasure island, the excalibur, the luxor, new york new york, the venetian. weatherford: the '90s were an unusual shift because suddenly, it became this weird arms race to see who could build the craziest theme. newscaster: the new hotels are a combination of casino and theme park. the luxor is a pyramid of hotel rooms covering a gambling floor, game arcades, and ersatz egyptian antiquities. the city is rebuilding itself to attract

the baby boomer generation, their children, and their money. zoglin: the visitors for vegas doubled between 1984 and '94, and that was partly because of these new hotels and extravagant new shows. it really catapulted vegas into a new era. newscaster: while mom plays the slot machines, dad takes the kids to the emerald city of oz. [ cackles ] schull" that's really what disney-fication was about. the capitalist impulse to profit from as many sectors as possible. i mean, it's money. it really enabled this next gen flourishing of las vegas. yay! ♪

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♪ schumacher: one of the really unexpected success stories in las vegas in the '90s was the arrival of cirque du soleil. cirque du soleil was this french canadian group that had this creative way of doing what gymnast do in the olympics. except on this amazing scale. binkley: cirque du soleil had been operating like a circus going around the world in different venues.

and steve wynn, like he does, he collects interesting people, so he gets this idea for having a permanent show. vegas entertainment was always over the top extravaganzas. it was kind of thought of as schlocky, but cirque du soleil did extravaganza in a very hip way. it was a mix of circus, and theater, and performance art, and it was really avant garde entertainment. ♪ weatherford: when mystere opened at treasure island at the end of 1993, it was a show you had to come to vegas to see. literally, you couldn't see it anywhere else. binkley: the best performance i ever saw in las vegas

was cirque du soleil's "o." blew my mind. ♪ schumacher: the showrooms were built specifically for each show. to the point where there was a giant swimming pool on stage. binkley: to see a stage that was water and people dancing in the water, above the water, that show could not happen anywhere but las vegas. ♪ las vegas does big, and it does spectacular, very well. but las vegas also knows how to up the ante. cirque du soleil is the next level up.

people embraced it to such an extent that cirque started creating new shows at other hotels on the strip. you have half a dozen of them. you would have your pick. do you want to see the beatles version? do you want to see an adult version? ♪ and i'm begging you, please ♪ ♪ thank you for my love ♪ do you want to see the elvis version? ♪ well, it's one for the money, two for the show ♪ ♪ three to get ready, now go, go, go ♪ ♪ go, go, go ♪ ♪ but don't you step on my blue suede shoes ♪ ♪ well, you can do anything ♪ ♪ but lay off my blue suede shoes ♪ binkley: elvis and las vegas are tied together forever for good or for bad. he's the kitsch part of las vegas, but we like kitsch now.

who doesn't love an elvis impersonator? ♪ you should've heard those knocked out jailbirds sing ♪ ♪ let's rock ♪ schumacher: elvis was elvis. there were certain ways that he spoke, there were certain ways that he sang that could be imitated by impersonators in las vegas. people want elvis to still be around. ♪ if you make it home... ♪ schumacher: elvis impersonators became a huge part of the entertainment industry in las vegas. as elvis always said, "well, i guess imitation is the best form of flattery." so elvis doesn't have any problems with somebody doing his show, and now it's become a badge of honor. ♪ for i can't help ♪ ♪ falling in love... ♪ you can even have elvis marry you. it can be a show. alright. thank you, dancers.

thank you very much. thank you, dancers. alright. mcbride: you think of weddings in other parts of the country as pretty staid affairs, pretty conventional, pretty traditional, blah, blah, blah. but las vegas, you can come and have fun. you can make a joke out of it. you can drive through and be married. weatherford: you can kind of take it for granted that you can come and get married by an elvis impersonator, right, but that is another tradition that dates back to when people actually poured into nevada for quicky weddings and quicky divorces, and now it's just part of the fabric in vegas. people thought of vegas as a unique place to tie the knot, and it became a hot spot for a lot of very high profile vegas weddings, particularly hollywood stars. binkley: two of america's most iconic figures,

frank sinatra and elvis presley, both chose to get married in las vegas. newscaster: elvis presley weds priscilla ann beaulieu. and one of america's richest teenage singing idols promises to love, honor, and obey. i think the wedding business in las vegas really is about taking something that can be very serious and maybe somewhat stuffy and making it something quirky that you can put your own spin on. and to me, that says everything about las vegas. ♪

♪ ♪ [sfx] water lapping. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [sfx] water splashing. ♪ ♪ [sfx] ambient / laughing. ♪ ♪

[sfx] amman: oh...ughing. newscaster: a piece of las vegas strip history is no more. in all that dust, a whole lot of memories. green: implosions bother historian types like me. but at the same time, a hotel from, say, the '50s cannot compete with what we have today, unless it's thoroughly remade. this is a city that thrives on replacing itself and growing all the time.

schumacher: i do shed a tear when you see something get knocked down that has this great historic story behind it, but las vegas wouldn't be here if it wasn't in a constant state of evolution. nothing is sacred on the strip. in just about 15 hours, this building, the once grand dunes hotel and casino, will be demolished in what's billed as america's most spectacular architectural implosion ever. is it part of a larger effort to do away with the old las vegas and reshape vegas as something else? things that would've gotten a "wow!" or a jazz 10 years ago draw "yawn" today. and if las vegas doesn't move along, las vegas is not going to be the exciting place it has been in the past. sardelli: when i first came, i came to play at the thunderbird, which is no longer there. then i played the riviera, which is no longer there. and i also played the sands, which is no longer there. maybe i bring bad luck.

[ laughs ] zook: to those of us that grew up with the older hotels, they mean something to us. i always thought that the dunes sign would always be there. so, when steve wynn tore it down, it broke my heart. for steve wynn, there was never sentimentality about the implosions. it was always very much about, "what's next?" and after the imposition of the dunes, that became the bellagio. there's a new player on the las vegas strip this morning. mirage resorts opened the bellagio, the world's most expensive hotel. the bellagio cost $1.6 billion. schull: steve wynn has shapeshifted his own vision.

he built the mirage, which you could say jumpstarted the elaborate, disney-like themes of casinos. he then departed by harkening back to a more luxurious era with the bellagio. newscaster: steve wynn hopes to provide visitors with a multidimensional cultural experience. the main attraction is a growing $300 million art collection, with artists such as van gogh, monet, renoir, and cézanne. what made you think that people would want to see great art like this in las vegas? there's a lot of stereotyping about las vegas, about the town, and about the people that go to visit it. people think that there's sort of a las vegas kind of person. well, nothing could be further from the truth. anka: steve wynn and i went to italy. he had bought the land at the dunes hotel. and we were sitting in the restaurant. we saw a little sign outside of the building,

and it said "bellagio". bing! bellagio, what a great name for that hotel. it's very italian and very sophisticated in terms of what that country's about. wynn: the translation means "an elegant place of relaxation", which seemed like a perfect name for the place. it's under construction for about three months already, and i guess somewhere, sometime, someone had to build the nicest hotel in the world. schull: bellagio's water display really was an entertainment destination in itself. you had to see that water show. it was so well done that everybody was just silent and in awe. ♪ binkley: the fountains of bellagio, it's one of those things where the pitch is not as good as the result. "i'm gonna build a fantastic fountain

in front of the bellagio." you know, you kind of go, "what? okay." but that a fountain could become an entertainment that would draw people into your casino, that's kind of bizarre and you have to see it to believe it. it wasn't just luxury. those fountains were romantic. you would not just walk by there even today and not stop. schull: that water show was elegant and it appealed to middle america. so it fit into the disneyification, but it also was part of what draws people to las vegas, to hook more people. "come in the door, come here." ♪ white: las vegas has always been on the cutting edge of marketing. we do all kinds of marketing ploys

to get people here. we need to know about your trip to vegas. mm-hmm. yes. vegas. it was nice. you know, it's... ♪ binkley: "what happens in vegas stays in vegas", became part of the lexicon, but that's what they want to promote. you can come here and misbehave in whatever way it is that you want to misbehave. whatever you did here doesn't count. this doesn't count on your record when you die. this was vegas. [ chuckles ] hey, i'm gonna go freshen up. i'll be right back. okay, i'll be right here. you gentlemen ready to check in? what happens in vegas stays in vegas? that's not true. no. [ laughs ] what happens in vegas goes everywhere.

timberlake: hey, i'm justin timberlake, and i'm here in the lobby of the colosseum at caesars palace

along with 4,000 other special guests invited tonight to the opening of celine dion's first ever theatrical show. now in just a few minutes, celine will be on stage for one of the most spectacular shows in las vegas history. [ cheers and applause ] [ singing indistinctly ] anka: when you talk about residencies with vegas, the great success story there is celine dion. her husband renee, he really came up with the concept of keeping her in one place. "let's bring them to us." they knew the people would come. they saw it with elvis. so it was brilliant. dion: two years ago i saw the cirque du soleil, the show "o". it changed my perspective of seeing performances. and i said to renee, "i want a show like that." he said, "celine you can't travel with a show like this, you can't travel the world. it's technically impossible." but i said, "let's move." ♪ fever ♪ ♪ in the morning ♪ weatherford: the idea of the residency in the modern era

was helped along by the fact that vegas built these venues for them. no other city in the country would be like, "hey, if you perform here, we'll build you a place to perform." that's essentially what happened with celine dion. woman: to the golden age of headliners, frank, dean, and sammy, add one more name -- celine. i'm here in the coliseum theater at caesars palace, built just for her, celine dion. her three year salary? $100 million. binkley: it's not just, "i'll build you a theater." it's also, you can stay here 365 days a year, you don't need to go on tour, and you can drop your kids off at school on monday morning. the performers here realize that there's a life here. there's a city here. this is more than strip and lights and shows. this has become home.

i feel in control, i feel happy. i've never feel that strong, so pretty. i don't know, i think i'm at the best of my life right now. schilling: touring with elvis, the thing that really wears you out is the travel. packing, unpacking, checking in. there's a different energy when you're on the road, but the easier one is the residency. ♪ 'cause i'm your lady ♪ ♪ and you are my man ♪ schwartz: the modern era of residencies starts with celine dion at the coliseum, and it's really the same idea of combining the production qualities of this big vegas show with the name of the entertainer. so celine does that brilliantly, and a lot of other people follow in her footsteps. ♪ she's got electric boots, a mohair suit ♪ ♪ i read it in a magazine, oh ♪

♪ bennie and the jets ♪ zoglin: they really inaugurated a new era for the big stars, who 20, 30 years ago would've thought vegas was beneath them. newscaster #1: superstar jennifer lopez kicked off her brand new show. newscaster #2: from gaga to gwen, bruno mars, maroon five, imagine dragons, they're all onstage. britney spears getting back to work. newscaster #3: a two year planet hollywood residency. spears: ♪ oh baby, baby ♪ ♪ oops, i did it again ♪ ♪ i played with your heart, got lost in the game ♪ ♪ oh, baby, baby ♪ binkley: there's just a symbiotic relationship between entertainers who want to have lives and do really cool acts, and las vegas, which needs entertainers and can keep them there and support them. newscaster: few people can lay claim to 40 years of diva-dom the way cher can. she famously retired... weatherford: as cher reinvented herself in the mtv era,

she deliberately stayed away from vegas for a while, and then when vegas became hip again and paid a lot of money, who's one of the first people they reached out to and booked? woman: so you have a big announcement. cher: [ laughs ] yes, i'm opening in las vegas. yeah, caesars palace. reported, $60 million? i don't know. oh come on. i know it's a lot, but i don't care. if it's a lot, if someone says, "ooh, that's a lot," okay, fine, it must be a lot. ♪ do you believe in life after love? ♪ ♪ i can feel something inside me say ♪ ♪ i really don't think you're strong enough, no ♪ newton: the strategy for the hotel owners still holds that if they had the biggest star who could fill that room night after night, show after show, then once that show was over,

people would go gamble. newscaster: the cards are turning and money, big money, is changing hands in las vegas at the world series of poker. green: in the early '70s, benny binion who ran the horseshoe, was an all time texas gambling operator, tough guy, and had great intuition in terms of attracting visitors. he talked about having an event and they came up with the name, "the world series of poker." binion: i'll tell you what, my father was a really, really good operator. you're always looking for more attractions to add more customers. the more attractions you have, the better off you're going to be. it wasn't that big at first, but boy did it get big! announcer: and here he is in las vegas, staring down two of the biggest names in the game. i'm all in. the pot size is $1 million now. binion: not in our wildest dreams

did we ever think it would this successful. if i had known right ahead, we'd be talking about me still owning the world series of poker. binkley: one thing important to recognize about poker is that casinos actually don't make money off of it. it's the only game, maybe, where you're not playing against the house. it's not pulling in revenue. today, the majority of revenue comes from slot machines. [ slot machine chiming ] the beauty of slot machines for casinos is that they can actually program the odds. schull: but with poker, it's never broken more than 2% of gambling revenue. and so the most that casinos are able to do with poker is use it as a sexy hook. it can evoke the rat pack era, give you a certain feel, "ooh, i'm really gambling,"

but it is not what makes las vegas tick. newscaster: inside binion's casino, poker player chris moneymaker, real name, is making big money at the high stakes world series of poker. he's never played a tournament. he learned on the internet. i'm the amateur, i'm the underdog, and trying to get to the final table and trying to be the nobody that made it. announcer: this could be the last card of the 2003 world series of poker. man: it's a five! [ cheers and applause ] chris moneymaker was an amateur player. in 2003, he wins the world series of poker and takes home over $2 million. man: chris, you turned $40 into $2.5 million. was this the game plan from day one? [ laughter ] of course it was. schwartz: the moneymaker effect meant that everybody who played online poker now thought that they could come to vegas and win millions of dollars. and at the end, well, it just so happened

that most of your money ended up in our pockets. who could've foretold that? ♪

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can i sleep over at your new place? can katie sleep over tonight? sure, honey! this generation is so dramatic! move with xfinity. ♪ green: there are so many ways las vegas reflects and refracts what's going on around the country.

the city has had a lot of booms. but 9/11 shut down the place. the great recession was incredibly destructive. the financial troubles the country is going through began when the housing bubble burst, and nevada is ground zero for the housing crisis. there was a real estate bubble. covid shut down the place. and so las vegas has this dependence on the outside world that can be very difficult and frightening. breaking news, of course the worst massacre in modern american history... newton: of course i had concerns whether las vegas was gonna be able to recover. yet vegas survived and will survive because of the great people who are in this town. binkley: all of the things that are happening throughout america are happening in las vegas, often in a more intense way.

a billionaire casino magnet from las vegas steps down from his company after multiple allegations of sexual wrongdoing. newscaster #1: "the wall street journal" published a story alleging a year's long pattern... newscaster #2: "the journal" also reporting wynn paid $7.5 million in his settlement. binkley: las vegas would not be what las vegas is without steve wynn, but i see now that we were looking the other way at behavior that isn't acceptable at all. white: las vegas is a resilient city. it is always able to come out on the winning side. this is a place where we manufacture experiences and there's nothing bigger in our culture today than experiences. it offers that escape, that secret closet.

that place where nobody knows what you're doing and you don't know what you're doing. you like to gamble? bam. you like to eat? bam. you want sex? bam. las vegas has got everything you need. and some things that you don't need and you got to watch yourself. charles: back in the '60s, it was like an adult playground. it turned into a party place. and that's what it is now. it's a big party place. that's the evolution of it. binkley: the basis of what las vegas is about is letting off steam. and it takes all of these little pieces that make us americans, and puts it all in one place. good or bad, pretty or ugly, it's got it all, and it celebrates it. binion: every time i ever bet against vegas, it's cost me money.

it's entertainment. it's fun! i mean, why the hell wouldn't you come to vegas? [ laughs ] little: it's so different from anything you'd see in your hometown. still a great place to gamble. you know, still a lot of great shows to see. las vegas is a wonderful little city, if they ever get it finished. las vegas is a distillation of what america is. and it really does, in heightened form, show us who we are, at the same time that is allows us an escape from ourselves and a place to be different. so it's both a reflection of us and also this otherness that we aspire to. i am grateful every day of my life that i walk on these boards.

las vegas represents a place where dreams can come true. anka: it's the most unique city in the world. you could go have a great meal with great chefs from all over the world. you want to see some great entertainment? you come to las vegas. you will get a1 entertainment. you want great rooms with style? you come to las vegas. if bugsy could only see what it's turned into today, he would look at it and go, "wow." that's what vegas is. you just walk through the door and it's, "wow". the best performer i have ever seen live in las vegas was sammy davis jr. anka: i've enjoyed sinatra. i enjoyed elton john. i enjoyed celine. the list goes on.

luther vandross. dean martin. nat king cole. the best performer i ever saw in las vegas was my friend elvis presley. ♪ i'm just a hunka hunka burnin' love ♪ ♪ just a hunka hunka burnin' love ♪ elvis, my goodness, he kicked butt! ♪ just a hunka hunka burnin' love ♪ oh, my god, what a show! ♪ just a hunka hunka burnin' love ♪ he was a hunka hunka man! ♪ just a hunka hunka burnin' love ♪ ♪ i'm just a hunka hunka burnin' love ♪ i was never that big an elvis fan. i was more of a pat boone fan. [ laughs ] [ cheers and applause ]